


it runs in my blood

by Sascha (greenet)



Category: Ghost Rider (Comics), Runaways (Comics), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 13:37:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11105658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenet/pseuds/Sascha
Summary: Eli moves to LA and meets Robbie Reyes.





	it runs in my blood

**Author's Note:**

> I found this in my folders of fic scraps, and while I intended it to be longer I don't think I'll ever finish it. But, I also don't want it to be lost forever so I'm posting it in case somebody else might also miss Eli and Robbie.

You grow up fast and you grow up hard when you’re playing at being a superhero. 

Eli’s not pretending he suffered more than any of the others. Differently, maybe. A different starting point, too, but they went through all of it together. They were a team. 

And maybe it was weakness that made him leave them. 

Kate probably thinks it is, but Kate, Kate has steel going through her. She comes off a spoiled debutante when she wants to, but Kate has more determination and grit that anybody he’s ever met. He misses her. 

He misses all of them, really. 

* 

How it goes: He meets the kid first and then he meets the kid’s big brother. 

“Heterochromia,” he says, dumbly. He knows that theoretically this happens, you can have an instant flash of attraction to someone, but it’s never happened to him before. The guy is a slim young latino with a shaved head. Ordinary, really. Something about him is different, though. Besides his eyes. 

The guy gives him a distracted frown, one hand on his little brother’s wheelchair. Eli might have guessed son, but the guy is clearly too young for that to be the case. “What? Gabe, I told you to wait for me.” 

“Your eyes are different colors. I’ve never actually seen anybody— uh, sorry, I’m being really rude. My name’s Eli and I’m one of the organizers.” 

The guy looks blank for a moment, then his face clears. “Hi. I’m Robbie and this is Gabe.” 

Eli nods. “Where can I direct you guys?” 

“Uh, taxes and stuff, I guess?” Robbie rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’ve got benefits and stuff pretty well locked down, but everything else is…” He gestures vaguely. “A complete mystery.” 

* 

Eli has a “our lives are fucking disasters” coffee date with Karolina Dean every other Thursday. It’s nice. 

“So you remember how I said that there’s only been girls so far, but I’m not ruling anything out?” he says, after they’ve talked about Karolina’s idiot friends who may or may not be currently or in the future following in their parents’ footsteps. 

“Yes?” Karolina looks surprised. 

“There was a guy at the free legal help thing I do, and, um.” 

“Oooh, tell me everything!” She chomps down on her fruit salad, and smiles, mouth full. Somehow she manages to look pretty doing it. 

* 

Thing is: Eli recognizes someone who’s carrying the world on his shoulders in Robbie. Maybe Robbie isn’t saving the world on a regular basis, but he’s saving his little brother, he’s saving himself, and that’s not nothing. 

* 

The next time he sees Robbie is in a club. Robbie is laughing and talking to a red haired girl, but the moment she turns and winds her way to the bar, his smile disappears and he just looks tired. He pinches the bridge of his nose briefly, closing his eyes. When he opens them, he looks around the room, pausing when he spots Eli staring at him. He looks wary for a moment, then his face clears and he nods, smiling a little. 

Eli decides to take it as a sign that his presence won’t be completely unwelcome. “Hi,” he says, once he’s next to him. 

“Hey,” Robbie says back. “I remember you. Eli, right?” 

Eli nods. “And you’re Robbie. Did Marcella help you guys with your taxes?” 

“Yeah. Yeah, she was a lot of help.” Robbie nods. He’s a bit jittery now, not in a bad way, necessarily, just. A little on edge. Eli wonders if he should back off, leave Robbie alone. When he smiles and starts the ‘it was nice seeing you again, let’s talk sometime’ thing, however, Robbie stops him. “Hey, I was wondering. Uh, can I call you Elijah? It’s just, I know this guy named Eli, and he’s not a good guy, and you seem like you are, and not that I’d mistake you or anything, just the name is kind of… Shit, is Elijah even your name?” 

Eli grins. “Yeah. And yeah, that’s fine.” 

Robbie grins back, and they stand there for a moment. 

“Hey, you wanna get out of here? I know a coffee shop that’s still open, we could talk? If you want,” Eli adds. 

“Yeah, sure,” Robbie says, and Eli is willing to bet at least half of it is wanting to avoid the redhead, but he’ll take it. The air outside the club is marginally cooler but not by much. 

* 

“I can’t stay long,” is the first thing Robbie says once they’re seated with their drinks. “I have to get home to Gabe.” 

Eli nods. “Sure. How is he, by the way? He seemed like a cool kid when I met him.”

Robbie’s face lights up. “Oh he’s amazing!” Robbie looks happy when he talks about Gabe, sounds happy. Eli listens, but mostly he watches Robbie’s face. 

* 

Eli brings his car — if you want to call it that — to Robbie’s garage. He’s a bit worried that he’s pushing it, but Robbie had given him the name and the address and his phone number, so probably he’s not. Caution has never really been Eli’s defining feature anyway. But he likes to think he’s grown up a little. He’s a little less angry nowadays, though, for sure. Not because he has run out of things to be angry about, fuck no, but he’s refusing to let himself acknowledge most of it. Repression: it works. 

He gives the front wheel of his car a wry kick. Maybe not as well as he’d wish, if he’s still thinking about it. 

Then Robbie appears, dressed in overalls, wiping grease off his hands and smiling, and looking very much in his element and very, unfairly, attractive, and Eli stops caring. “Elijah! Hi!”

* 

Robbie kisses him after their fifth meeting and then takes a swing at him. It doesn’t connect. Eli might not be a superhero anymore, but he has excellent reflexes. “What the fuck?” he says, shocked, pushing Robbie off him, taking a couple steps back. They’re in Eli’s room, because Eli doesn’t have a roommate or a little brother. 

Robbie’s eyes are glowing. His lips are pulled back in an mockery of a grin. When he speaks, his voice sounds off. “Fucking knew it! Fucking—“ and the glow fades, and whatever that was, it’s definitely Robbie now. He’s pale and shock-y, and the look he gives Eli before running off is agonized. 

“What the fuck?” Eli says again.

Tessa from down the hall gives him a weird look through the open door and hurries past. 

Eli doesn’t really blame her.

* 

Robbie ignores his texts for three days and then shows up outside of Eli’s morning lecture hall. “Look, I understand if you don’t want to see me,” he says quickly, offering Eli a coffee. “But I just. I want to explain. If you’ll let me.”

“Okay,” Eli says slowly. He can miss this lecture, it won’t matter much. “Let’s… There’s a park, we can go there. It’s pretty quiet this time of day.” 

Robbie paces. Eli sits on a bench and waits. “Are you an alien?” he says finally, mostly to say something. Robbie gives him a startled look. “Because some of my best friends—“

“No, I’m not an alien,” Robbie sighs. He stops. “Might’ve been better,” he mutters. “I… Fuck, there’s no way to say this that won’t sound insane, so… I’m possessed by an evil killer, and sometimes he pops out and awful shit happens, but mostly I can control it. Him. I just wasn’t expecting… You’re the first person I’ve kissed since this happened.”

“That good, huh?” Eli manages. Possession by evil killer is new, even to him. L.A. is full of surprises.

Robbie huffs a laugh. “Yeah. I guess. I understand if you don’t want to see me again. Believe me, I do know what I sound like. But I really like you. A lot. So I wanted to, to try to explain.” 

“I like you too,” Eli says, because that’s the easy part. “And while this might sound stupid: Have you tried not being possessed?”

Robbie winces. “Yeah, turns out that I sort of died some months back? The possession saved my life. Apparently. So.”

“Ah.” It seems only fair for Eli to reveal something about himself as well. “I told you I’m from New York, right? Well, I didn’t tell you everything. I, uh, was sort of an Avenger there, for a while. Went by the name of Patriot. I… A lot of things happened and I had to leave, but. Yeah.” 

“I’ve never heard of you,” Robbie says, a little apologetically. “Sorry.” 

Eli laughs. “God, no, it’s fine. I wasn’t anybody important.” 

“That, I don’t believe. I don’t think you’d ever be unimportant,” Robbie says. 

* 

The next time they kiss, Robbie stays Robbie.


End file.
